search-and-extract

name	search-and-extract
description	Web search and content extraction skill spanning Tavily, Exa, Ollama Cloud, Jina AI, Parallel Web Systems, Firecrawl, and local SearXNG. Use when the user asks to search the web, fetch a page, verify facts, gather citations, or extract article text for LLM consumption.

Search and Extract

A single-file CLI for web search and URL content extraction across multiple services. Output is plain text (\n---\n separated) intended for LLM consumption.

Quick Reference

cd skills/search-and-extract/scripts

# Search — pick a backend with a --<service> flag (defaults to 10 results)
uv run search-extract.py search --tavily "latest rust release"
uv run search-extract.py search --exa "quantum computing"
uv run search-extract.py search --ollama "open source LLMs"
uv run search-extract.py search --jina "climate news"
uv run search-extract.py search --searxng "news today"

# No --<service> flag? The first available service is used automatically.
uv run search-extract.py search "latest AI news"

# Extract — same flag pattern, takes a single URL
uv run search-extract.py extract --tavily https://example.com
uv run search-extract.py extract --exa https://example.com
uv run search-extract.py extract --ollama https://example.com
uv run search-extract.py extract --jina https://example.com
uv run search-extract.py extract https://example.com   # default to first available

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Service selection

Pick a backend by passing exactly one --<service> flag. If no service flag is given, the CLI auto-selects the first available service (in the order below) that is enabled and has its required API key set.

Priority	Service	search	extract	Required key
1	tavily	yes	yes	TAVILY_API_KEY
2	exa	yes	yes	EXA_API_KEY
3	ollama	yes	yes	OLLAMA_API_KEY
4	jina	yes	yes	key optional
5	searxng	yes	no	none (local server)
6	parallel	yes	yes	PARALLEL_API_KEY
7	firecrawl	yes	yes	key optional

Passing more than one --<service> flag is an error. Diagnostics (default selection, errors) go to stderr so stdout stays clean for LLM use.

---

Commands

search <query> [--<service>] [--max-results N]

Search the web. <query> is positional; the backend is chosen with a --<service> flag (default: first available). Returns up to N results (default 10).

Flag	Description
--tavily	Tavily API, optional answer prepended
--exa	Exa neural search, returns highlights
--ollama	Ollama Cloud
--jina	Jina AI, key optional
--searxng	Local SearXNG instance (search only)
--parallel	Parallel Web Systems, returns excerpts
--firecrawl	Firecrawl, key optional
--max-results N	Max results to return (default 10)

extract <url> [--<service>]

Extract content from a single URL. <url> is positional; the backend is chosen with a --<service> flag (default: first available). All backends take exactly one URL.

Flag	Description
--tavily	Tavily, markdown output
--exa	Exa, full text
--ollama	Ollama Cloud
--jina	Jina AI
--parallel	Parallel Web Systems, full content
--firecrawl	Firecrawl, markdown via scrape

---

Core function signatures

Each backend is a plain function with a normalized parameter list:

Function	Signature
*_search	(query: str, max_results=10)
*_extract	(url: str)

Search functions take only the result count (max_results, default 10) beyond the query. Extract functions take only a single url.

---

Environment Variables

Variable	Required	Default	Description
TAVILY_API_KEY	Tavily	—	API key for Tavily search/extract
EXA_API_KEY	Exa	—	API key for Exa search/extract
OLLAMA_API_KEY	Ollama	—	API key for Ollama Cloud
JINA_API_KEY	Optional	—	Optional key for higher Jina rate limit
SEARXNG_URL	SearXNG	http://localhost:8888	Base URL of local SearXNG instance
PARALLEL_API_KEY	Parallel	—	API key for Parallel search/extract
FIRECRAWL_API_KEY	Optional	—	Optional key for Firecrawl rate limits
DISABLE_TAVILY	No	—	Set 1 or true to skip Tavily
DISABLE_EXA	No	—	Set 1 or true to skip Exa
DISABLE_OLLAMA	No	—	Set 1 or true to skip Ollama
DISABLE_JINA	No	—	Set 1 or true to skip Jina
DISABLE_SEARXNG	No	—	Set 1 or true to skip SearXNG
DISABLE_PARALLEL	No	—	Set 1 or true to skip Parallel
DISABLE_FIRECRAWL	No	—	Set 1 or true to skip Firecrawl

A service counts as available for default selection only if it is not disabled and has its required key set (where one is required).

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Notes

• Output is plain text meant for LLM consumption; multiple results are separated by \n---\n.
• Missing required keys or disabled services return short error strings instead of crashing.
• SearXNG only supports search; there is no --searxng flag for extract.
• Jina AI and Firecrawl work without an API key at a lower rate limit.
• Search defaults to 10 results; --max-results overrides it.
• extract takes exactly one URL per invocation.
• Run with uv run search-extract.py ... so PEP 723 inline dependencies are resolved automatically.